Judas Priest’s Rob Halford on Touring: ‘We Are Still Going to Be Out There’

Judas Priest may have a lot of mileage on them, but frontman Rob Halford says that the addition of guitarist Richie Faulkner to the lineup has rolled back the odometer a bit. The group had openly discussed their 'Epitaph' shows being their final world tour, but the frontman says that may not exactly be the case.

Halford told WVOX.com's Metal Mayhem show (as excerpted by Bravewords.com), "It's turned out not to be the final world tour. What we tried to do as we suddenly got into gear again, and especially since Richie came onboard, we suddenly realized that now there were more opportunities opening up. What was a final global world tour in the way that we've been doing them for the past thirty odd years is just going to change slightly."

Detailing the change, Halford explained, "We're going to do a European tour for about a month or two months and then instead of jumping on a plane and going straight to New York to start an American tour, we're just going to pull back and put a bit of space to recharge our batteries and to be able to keep that special feeling that Priest always wants to generate when we go on stage. We have a big responsibility not only to ourselves, but to our fans that we don't want to drop the ball." The "metal god" concluded, "It's not the end of touring, we are still going to be going out there."

These days the band can also transition a bit as they will now be supporting the 'Epitaph' concert DVD. Unlike a lot of DVDs that attempt to fill with "behind-the-scenes" footage, the vocalist sees this as more of a true concert document. He says, "This DVD is like a documentary without people yapping on it. It's the music speaking for itself. I think that's the best way when you are trying to tell the life of a band."